Google +1’s Facebook’s Like Button

Facebook’s invention of the ‘Like’ button has been very popular. Everyone likes to tell people what they like, and recommend things to their friends. If you’ve ever had a friend tell you about this amazing website, and then spent hours trying to find it yourself, you may appreciate Google’s latest effort at social media.

The search engine giant has this week announced their ‘+1′ , (pronouced as ‘plus one’) button, Google’s version of the Facebook ‘Like’ button. In the United States, a small percentage of Google users have begun to see a ‘+1′ button next to their search results. If the initiative is a success, Australian searchers can expect to see +1 popping up in Google.com.au before long.

Google’s stated logic is that it can be a pain to go through all the search results to find out which website best suits your interest. Since your friends might well have similar interests, the +1 button will help you to find exactly what you are looking for faster, if someone you know has already found it and clicked +1.

+1 is applicable to AdWords ads as well, so if you spot a great deal that you know a friend would like, you can let them know.

In order to use the feature, you’ll need a public Google profile. Your profile is visible to anyone, and you will have a ‘+1′ tab on your Google profile. This can be shown to the whole world, or it can be kept on private to record all the things that you love on the internet.

Regardless of whether you choose to publicly share your +1 tab, all your +1’s will still be visible to others viewing the content that you have +1’d. Similar to Facebook, you can see how many people have ‘Liked’ something, but just not the identity of everyone who has done so.

2 Comments

If you want to get in early on getting your own +1’s to show up, go to google.com/experimental with your logged in Google profile & opt in. If it STILL doesn’t work, go to http://www.google.com/ncr & try that.